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Thursday, 22 November 2012

Sometimes it’s hard to enjoy Thanksgiving when the thought of trying to lose the usually gained 2-10 pounds is looming over your (turkey-gorging) head. To help alleviate this unnecessary holiday stress, we’ve put together a few recipes and tips to make your T-Day dishes subtly skinny so that you enjoy your feast with abandon without abandoning your waistline.

Seize the Salad

Start by filling up on a big, veggie-dense salad. We’re not talking the iceberg lettuce and ranch dressing variety, but rather something composed of actual, whole, nutrient-rich vegetables.

Thanksgiving Green Salad

This salad feels light but is surprisingly filling, with lots of leafy greens, dried and fresh fruit, and nuts.

Cue Cauliflower

Swap out the usual mashed potatoes with mashed cauliflower. Your dish will taste about the same (if not better!), but with half the calories.

Mock Mashed Potatoes

Parmesan and garlic combine to make this dish a flavor sensation.

Go Organic

Splurge on an organic turkey; regular store-bought turkeys tend to have a ton of added sodium. After the big day, try leftover turkey on something healthier and more exciting than sandwich bread.

Asian Turkey Cabbage Cups

The Asian flavor of this über-light dish will provide some welcome relief from more traditional T-day tastes.

Don’t Miss Dessert

Desserts don’t have to be over-the-top rich to be good. In fact, sometimes it’s nice to have a lighter sweet option at the end of such a big meal. Also, remember that you can always substitute oil with a with fruit puree like applesauce when baking.

Cranberry Pineapple Sauce

Cranberry sauce goes au natural, replacing most of the sugar called for in traditional recipes with pineapple.

Wednesday, 14 November 2012

Yes , FAT BLOCKING PEPSI. It is no gimmick or lies. A fat blocking pepsi was introduced yesterday in Japan. Am shocked as you are, does it really work? I guess you would have to wait to find out...

It sounds like a dieter's dream. Drink soda and lose weight. It's junk food with a healthy sheen and it's a real Pepsi product out in Japan.

Pepsi Special is special because of an added ingredient: dextrin, the same stuff found in Benefiber. It's a water-soluble fiber supplement that may also have some extracurricular effects with feelings of fullness and a reduction in fat absorption.

According to a study published in Appetite in 2011, soluble fiber dextrin increased participants' sense of satiety and decreased the amount of energy absorbed from the next meal. How that finding translates to a dextrin-charged soda is up for discussion.

Pepsi Special will get a nationwide release in Japan on November 13, and it's unlikely to be a big hit with the Sumo community. The advertising materials promise it will have a crisp and refreshing Pepsi flavor that hides the fibery aspects of the drink. There is no mention yet of how many calories it contains. A bottle will sell for just under $2.

Government-approved fat-blocking sodas are a recent development in Japan. Another dextrin soda called Kirin Mets Cola came out earlier this year after receiving clearance from the Japan Health Food & Nutrition Food Association. Pepsi Special has attained the same official "Foods for Specified Health Uses" designation. I guess that means soda pop can qualify as a health food.

Japan's reputation as country of thin people makes it a curious choice for an anti-fat-absorption drink, but perhaps it's just a test run before reaching out to the soda-slurping American market. Of course, we can't help but wonder.

Monday, 12 November 2012

Twenty-one-year-old Lukyanova refers to herself as "most famous woman of the Russian-speaking Internet" and often uses the alias "Amatue," which means sun goddess. She hails from the Moldavian city of Tiraspol, and currently has 466 videos uploaded to her YouTube account with over 16 million views and 535,000 Facebook fans. She was early to the living doll movement, but she tells V, "Indeed, I've noticed a trend. "Every good-looking woman with fine features and a slim figure looks like a doll. I won't deny that I play along with people's perceptions. I'm amused by the reactions. I don't take it seriously."

Strong reactions to Lukyanova's appearance are not surprising. With her large glassy eyes (enhanced by makeup and contact lenses), long platinum blond hair, Gumby-like limbs, and disproportionate chest to waist ratio, the Ukrainian YouTube star really does look like she belongs in a Mattel box on a toy shelf. But despite her unrealistic exterior and confusing claims on her website that she is "endowed by nature with extraordinary external data," this woman is real.

So what is the average day like for a human Barbie like Lukyanova? "In the morning I work on my face and I get a massage, then I spend some time on the Internet," she tells V magazine. "I meditate and travel in my astral body, and after that I work out at the gym. I go for a walk with my best girlfriend, I get home, and I make dinner for the man I love. Then I spend some more time on the Internet, do some reading and meditating, and go to bed." Yup, all in a day's work.

Lukynova encounters many haters in online forums, but she isn't deterred by them. "I know the other side of celebrity is negativity, but I see it in a positive light. If people care about me, then I am on the right path," she says. "I'm happy I seem unreal to them, it means I'm doing a good job. It's hard work, but they dismiss it as something done by surgeons or computer artists. This is how they justify not wanting to strive for self-improvement. "